


(un)answered questions

by bbqcastiel



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Fluff, JATP, M/M, Star Gazing, grand canyon - Freeform, hand holding, soft, willex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-01
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:16:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27811369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bbqcastiel/pseuds/bbqcastiel
Summary: Alex still hasn't learned all there is in being a ghost.Willie is there to help him figure it out, just like the first time and all the other times after.(Also available onWattpad)
Relationships: Alex & Willie (Julie and The Phantoms), Alex/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 145





	(un)answered questions

**Author's Note:**

> All the characters are not mine. (I only wanted to envision them in this scenario to feed my Willex needs.)
> 
> They are the works of Kenny Ortega, the writing team, and everyone that made Julie and the Phantoms possible.
> 
> Thank you for telling Willie and Alex's story.
> 
> Waiting for season 2!

Alex still hasn’t learned all there is in being a ghost. 

Why do they not fall through the floors? How can they sit on chairs? How did the very first ghost even take all this in? Even the playing of instruments with Julie still boggles his mind. Though he and the boys have an inkling the girl has much more involvement with making them visible than what they briefly theorized (the thrill of being seen glossed over the fact).

Those questions are on repeat in Alex’s mind day and night. It doesn’t help that given his situation, he is now awake 24 hours a day. 

Whenever the band plays is the only time it drowns them out and allows him to just live in the moment. 

The vibrations of Reggie’s bass, the ringing of Luke’s electric guitar, the melody of Julie’s piano, and the sharp bangs shooting up Alex’s arms with every beat of his drum. It leaves no room for his mind to run. 

They are just Julie and the Phantoms.

Tonight, dragging his feet in front of the beach, his thoughts are muddled. The businesses lined up the coast are closed or closing, only a handful of people are here. Employees locking up, people en route to their homes and families, couples ending their dates. 

Quiet enough to let his mind wander.

He hears the concrete beneath his feet, yet nobody else does. He is making contact with the ground, yet his existence is not real. 

The cold wind from the sea blows through his hair. This must be some kind of joke, he thought. How can something on the real plane affect him, a dead teen? He huffs.

Leaving himself with his thoughts is never a good idea, he figured a long time ago. The boys might be going along with their situation just fine but Alex can’t help it. At school, he would always psych himself up, overthink things, that it would end him up in front of the class non-stop stammering. He guesses it’s a good thing Luke was looking for a drummer after one dropped out. It helped him take his mind off of things.

Alex is squeezing his hands and running his nails on his skin. There is buzzing on his fingertips, looking for something to hold. Should he be carrying his drumsticks everywhere all the time now?

“Hey, hotdog,” a familiar voice calls for him.

Alex looks behind and sees Willie, with his tie-dyed shirt and the cracked helmet hiding his long hair. His eyes are questioning Alex’s presence but delighted with the unexpected company at the same time.

Alex inhales, he didn’t even hear his skateboard. “Hey, Willie.”

“What are you doing at this time of night?”

Alex lets out a nervous chuckle, he’s not going to bother Willie with all the existential crisis crap that he’s trying, and failing, to figure out.

“Uhh… catching some fresh air.”

“Ah!” He inhales deeply. “The smell of salt and fish. Fresh,” his voice teasing.

“Shut up,” he elbows Willie playfully that made him slightly off-balance on the board and elicited a laugh out of him. “How about you, what are you doing on this fateful night?”

“The usual. Skating the streets of LA,” he raises his hands making LA sound grand. Willie jumps off the board, “and looking for cute boys along the way.”

The nonchalant ways of Willie still catch Alex off-guard and never fails to make him blush and stutter. Rarely is he thankful nobody could see him, but tonight is the night, because his mouth involuntarily opens and closes as his mind tries to think of something to reply to brush the blatant flirting off. It’s not a good sight, might as well jump in the waters and swim with the fishes.

“You’re fine, Alex,” Willie laughs. It only made him blush more.

His mind doesn’t seem to be working right now so the only thing he could do was let out a small nervous chuckle and continue walking on the path. Willie picks up his board to walk alongside him.

“So,” Willie starts. “What are you really doing here?”

Willie pushes the lock on his helmet and takes it off, letting his chest-length hair down and the wind catches it. Alex clears his throat. He hadn’t got a chance to feel his hair yet and it looks as soft as any other time.

He holds out his hand and Willie utters a “thank you” and hands him his helmet as he starts to brush his hair down.

“Well…” he plays with the helmet’s worn out straps. His fingers seem to be budding with nervous electricity once again. His mind flashes back to their first time meeting. Alex immediately consoled his feelings and asked questions, dumping all doubts on Willie, who was once a stranger. The skater didn’t seem to mind but what if it’s too much and he would turn Willie off? It's got to be exhausting listening to him.

Willie’s hand finds his. Alex realizes that he hasn’t said a thing for quite some time and he’s been preoccupied with his thoughts again. He sees Willie’s face looking at him with seriousness.

“Sorry,” Alex mutters and lets go of the straps and holds the helmet by the head. “I still haven’t figured out this whole… ghost thing.” Here he goes. Willie nods.

“Tell me.”

Willie runs up ahead to a bench under an arch with leaves weaving through and sits on it. “Come on,” he tilts his head.

Alex sighs as he sits down.

Willie looks at him waiting.

“Sometimes…”  _ A lot of the time.  _ “I think about all of this,” he waves his hand. “And I  _ have  _ come to terms that I am now a ghost. But…” he trails, thinking if he should dive into the deep end from the very start.

“You feel like you don’t exist?” Willie provided.

Alex looks at him and sees understanding. Eyes wide and bearing his truth. Willie's truth that Alex also shares.

“Yeah,” he breathes out.

Willie nods. “I’ve got something to show you, then.”

“Okay."

It’s easy, talking to Willie. Alex’s mind is a confusing mess that even he couldn’t figure out what to make of it. But right now, the teen who is holding his hand out for him to take is able to untangle all the knots and kinks and somehow read it aloud for the both of them.

Alex takes his hand and Willie fits his fingers in between his.

“Hold tight,” Willie leans in closer to his body and whispers, moments before whipping both of them to another place.

He felt like he went through a vacuum similar to when he teleports as a ghost. Normally, it doesn't make him dizzy, but this time it did.

“What--”

“Whoo!” Willie shouts and follows it with a burst of laughter that echoes. Alex looks around him and they are no longer on the beach but instead, they’re in… the Grand Canyon.

“Willie, what are we doing here?” He can’t help but let out small laughs because of how elated the boy next to him is.

“That was my first time teleporting with someone," he says with a kid-like glee.

Willie sees the concerned look on Alex’s face.

“Don’t worry, Caleb told me a few pointers so I don’t leave anyone’s big toe on the way.”

Willie pulls Alex near the edge, a reminder that they are still holding hands and Willie doesn’t seem to plan on letting go any time soon.

They stop, overlooking the canyon. Rock formations as far as the eye can see. Alex could only travel for a few kilometers at best but Willie traveled 400 miles to bring him here. That explains the dizziness.

A thousand-foot drop is ready to meet them in just a few steps. Alex's heart skips a beat by this realization but immediately has to remind himself of his invincibility. 

A winding river weaves through in between the cliffs. There’s light reflecting the running water below. Now that Alex thinks about it, they are nowhere near a path tourists would take. There are no lamps that would illuminate the place. Yet he can see the outlines, the nicks of the canyon, the greens of the trees and shrubs from the distance.

“Look up.”

Alex did. He was floored.

Hundreds of stars scattering across the night sky, some big and some small. A white line cutting straight through the middle that looks like smoke and powder of purple, pink, and blue. His breath couldn’t have come back and he wouldn’t even notice. 

He’s seeing the universe. A crack in the sky it looks like, but it also looks like the seam that is holding the world together.

He didn’t know where his voice came from but he uttered, “it’s beautiful,” before he was even aware.

Willie squeezes his hand and it brings him back to his reality.

“Remember what we did on our first date?”

Alex almost didn’t catch the word “date” and before he had the chance to react and maybe deny that it was, Willie screams into the great expanse. It echoes.

Right, it  _ echoes.  _

Why does it echo?

Willie turns to him with the smile permanently on his face.

Alex screams, and it echoes. Willie joins, and with every single scream from the boys comes another scream coming back.

His questions are forgotten. The joy bubbling inside his chest makes his screams lace with laughter, Willie’s are the same. Butterflies flying in his stomach are trying to both get out and greet the boy causing the uproar, but at the same time nest, not allowing the feeling to go.

They go silent and let the last echo pass. Alex is out of breath and throat scratched up, he let himself go and would probably have a hard time with the band practice tomorrow. But he couldn’t get himself to care. Not right now with Willie.

“I heard this is one of the few places we could still see the Milky Way,” Willie says. “With all the lights in the city, I never get to see the stars.”

Alex turns and sees Willie looking up at the sky, in awe. He realizes that the boy hadn’t been here before as well. 

They’re experiencing it for the first time together.

“Every single star, Alex,” Willie turns to meet Alex’s eyes. “Brighter or dimmer, visible or not, they have a place in the sky. It doesn’t change the fact that they are.”

Alex holds his breath.

Willie tightens his grip on his hand. “You are, Alex.”

Willie’s eyes are wide and his body angles to face Alex, trying to make the blonde hear every single word. It also allows Alex to see the honesty with Willie. Ever since he met the skater, he never doubted the genuine kindness and selflessness he portrays to every ghost or person he met, to his friends, and to him. 

It boggles his mind that there is such a person in a non-fictional world. But no more questions.

His questions are already answered by those simple words uttered by Willie.

He is. They are.  They echo because they exist and because they are stars occupying the same sky.

The End.


End file.
